Before I forget - Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms of two-leggeds, four-leggeds, winged ones and creepy crawlies!

We’ve been in Southern Utah now for about 3 weeks. We don’t like to overdo the driving, so we try to keep it at 400 or less miles per day. We stopped in North Little Rock, AR followed by a 2 night-er in Oklahoma City.

After those 2 nights in OKC, we had two more stops, one in Tucumcari, NM on Route 66 AND then outside of Winslow, AZ, where we stayed in an “rv park” that was a notch above staying overnight at a Wal-Mart. The only reason it was a notch ABOVE was because it had hookups! LOL. The people were very nice, but it was just a gravel parking lot on a slant.

We continued on through Kanab, UT on our way to LaVerkin, UT, on Wednesday, April 21st to our friend Bob’s home, where he has all the comforts of RV-living right on his property INCLUDING a basement studio. Talk about convenient! We’re parked right under several trees so it’s staying nice and cool even when the days have gotten hot.

This is a beautiful part of the country that just speaks to Arvel and I. The red rocks remind us of Sedona, but with even more character. We’re so near Zion National Park which boasts a magnificent mountain range, awesome scenic route through it. We’ve not hiked a lot of it, but marvel at how beautiful so many parts of our country are and how fortunate we are to be able to travel like we do.

Since we arrived, Arvel’s been working long hours on the new Animal Totems 3 CD. Most nights he wakes up in the middle of the night and comes out to the “living room” area in the moho and works, then comes back to bed and sleeps for a few more hours and then back up to work the rest of the day. There’s another argument for wearing earplugs when I sleep!

We didn’t want to get too scattered with working on the new CD, so we only scheduled a hand-full of gigs during this time; such as an assembly at a Colorado City school, then a community concert that Friday which was AWESOME! We almost completely filled the auditorium and brought in another part of the community that we hadn’t been able to connect with previously.

The following weekend Arvel gave the “message” at the United Church of Kanab, followed by an Animal Totems workshop at the church later in the afternoon, both extremely well attended. In fact, I’m not sure we could seat any more at the workshop, but it was fun and inspired.

This past weekend Arvel has been in Canton, Georgia performing at a Mother’s Day Festival. Since he’s been gone, I’ve been busy working on new projects and generally taking care of business. I spent yesterday with friends at a graduation party for Colorado City high school graduates. It was a fun day, but cold, so what started out as an outdoor party, quickly moved indoors, thank goodness! I took a picture of our Jeep’s dashboard readings and TM’d it to Arvel showing the temperature was 37 degrees while he was performing in high 90 degree weather in Canton. Talk about extremes!

So, Arvel comes back to Utah tomorrow, May 11th. I’m looking forward to it. Living so close under one (mobile) roof, you’d think the time apart would be great, but actually, I kinda get used to his face, the violin practicing in the morning and waking up to get to hear what he worked on overnight, definitely a big hole when he’s not here.

The girls really miss Arvel, especially Zoey. Fortunately there are 3 other dogs (2 Shih Tzus and a Sheltie) living in Bob’s house at the moment, so they get lots of play time with the others. Thankfully, they all get along well. And of course us adults get along famously. Bob is a super nice man with a great big kitchen that he doesn’t mind me cooking for him in!! It’s so freeing to be able to have 3 or 4 burners going at once and an assortment of cooking utensils to use. Power Management is one of the top issues in a motor home.

Deidre is visiting with Bob for a while, so it’s been fun getting to know her, as well. You couldn’t ask for better neighbors!

Well, that’s about it for now. Until next time - let us hear from you - info@arvelbird.com. Love each other and take care of yourselves.